On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:26:53 -0500, [SMF] wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate

"It is absorbed through foliage and translocated to growing points."

But, WHY does a plant absorb the poison when the plant normally doens't
absorb water from its leaves.

IIRC, a plant absorbs water from the roots and transpires that water out
the leaves so that nutrients flow up and sugars manufactured by the leaf
flow down, with oxygen given off as a waste byproduct.

What I don't understand, if we can give a leaf a personality, is why the
leaf bothers to absorb the wet chemical. What is that mechanism that makes
the leaf want to absorb the poison.

Someone said osmosis, which might be right ... in that the concentration of
the glyphosate is greater on the outside of the leaf than on the inside and
the cell membranes allow the stuff through ... maybe it's that simple.
Maybe not.

That's why I'm asking.